http://dcist.com/

Can you say Police State? The Examiner has the scoop on a controversial new program announced today that would create so-called “Neighborhood Safety Zones” which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don’t live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there. Wow. Just, wow.

Some of the words used to describe such a plan by those quoted in the Examiner story include “breathtaking” and “cockamamie,” but that hardly begins to scratch the surface. Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles actually said that measures of this sort have “been used in other cities.” Which cities are those, Mr. Nickles? Warsaw?

Today’s proposal appears to be a desperate attempt by the city to tamp down recent violence that has ravaged the city, especially in Ward 5. The “Neighborhood Safety Zones” would last up to 10 days. It’s a struggle to think of words to describe such a plan other than authoritarian or ghettoization.

The full description of the Mayor’s plan is detailed in the article.

Yes, this should end well.

http://memphisetc.blogspot.com/

Operation Thug Huntin’

…or “How I spent my Saturday night”

Over 50 law enforcement agencies came together this weekend for Operation Sudden Impact (they said my name for it wasn’t PC enough). In any case, a whole boatload of the Po-Po got together and ran gang interdictions, traffic saturations, drug sweeps, fugitive searches, and some other things I can’t tell you about for a 24 hour period.

It was fun. More about it here.

On the serious side, we now know the mid-south agencies can work together and bring a LOT of police presence and firepower down on a given area if we ever need to do it in a hurry.

Here is a list of agencies involved courtesy of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Web site:

Follow the link to see the huge list of agencies. Check out the comments:

Thank you for the work you do! I’m a Memphis native, relative of former MPD officers, and worked in law enforcement myself. I really enjoy reading your blog. My entire family still lives in Memphis and I go home as often as I can. It’s sad to see what’s become of my hometown. You guys are to be commended for the hard work you put in. Love your commentary!!!

Scary.

FBI raids, Arabs whine, liberal media listens…

There are a couple of stories this weekend on two separate Memphis TV stations (WREG and WHBQ) about some FBI raids on local businesses last week. Both stories center on the poor Arabs who are being harassed by the big, bad Feds. The TV reporters seem really ticked off the FBI didn’t bother to call the TV stations personally and let them know all the facts of the case and exactly when the raids were going to take place…how DARE law enforcement do something without telling the TV news departments?This would be funny except for the fact that the public buys this biased crap.

The stations ran different angles on the same basic story, but the common thread was that the FBI is harassing Arab-owned businessmen and employees. So, in the interest of balance (not to mention those fact thingies), Memphis, ETC would like to share some general facts about middle eastern businesses, terrorism, and the reality of it all.

I wasn’t in on these raids, but we’ve done some in the past. The FBI is always armed with a search warrant, which makes the raids totally legal. Most federal judges won’t sign a search warrant without some really compelling evidence that something criminal is afoot. Apparently that was the case here as well.

To the citizens with their heads buried in the sand, let me state another fact. Terrorists and those who support them are living right here in the Mid-South. They are 99% middle eastern. You may try to spin that, or ignore that fact, but that IS a fact. They are using our laws and our society’s political correctness to skirt the law and fund operations that directly threaten the security of the United States. You may not like that fact, but again, it IS a fact.

Yes, it looks like the FBI did raid Arab owned businesses. Well, last I heard, there were no Canadian, Native Americans, or any other ethnic group besides the Arabs trying to explode a nuclear device in our country. Plus, it’s a funny thing about police work…you follow the evidence in anti-terrorism ops and it just seems to lead to middle eastern folks. Gee, I wonder why?

One of the stories also made mention of the fact that there were some odd items seized in the raid, such as ball caps and jewelry. Well, that may be odd to some Cub reporter who doesn’t care about getting both sides of the story, but that was the bit of information that made the light go off in my head.

I believe the FBI is on to some Arabs running these little corner grocery stores you see that offer all sorts of things besides groceries…you know, CD’s, DVD’s, clothing, jewelry. I’ll bet you my stock in Halliburton this particular case is about counterfeiting and media piracy. Plus, I’d further bet that the FBI thinks funds from these illegal sales are being funneled back to whatever county these jerks are from to fund terrorist operations.

Here’s how it works: Mohammad opens a little store usually in the poorer sections of town. Oh, by the way, your governments lets these folks do this and not pay taxes for 7 years to encourage new small businesses…but guess what? Mohammad has a huge family over here, and at the end of seven years he just sells the business to his brother. Gee, another 7 years of tax-free operations, courtesy of the U.S government. Mohammad sells DVD’s and CD’s cheaper than Wal-Mart, because Mohammad has a $10,000 DVD duplicator in his back room where he is duplicating these movies and CD’s. He sells in the black communities and poorer sections of town because he knows no one will report it because they don’t care. Mohammad is also in the market for stolen cell phones which he can wipe and sell overseas. Since Mohammad pays no taxes, he can afford to send a large amount of his profits back to Yemen, Iran, or wherever…where the money is funneled to the same organizations trying to kill out sons , daughters, moms and dads in Iraq. But in this case this week, the FBI seems to have gotten wind of the operations, and the big bad Feds busted in and took Mohammad’s computers and duplicating equipment, his business records, and some of his counterfeit stuff for evidence. So, Mohammad goes crying to the liberal media which happily gives him a stage for his predictable “They are profiling me” whine, and the liberals just drink that stuff up like it was a Starbuck’s latte’.

I am constantly amazed at the willing suspension of disbelief a lot of Americas have about terrorists operating in American, right now, in YOUR neighborhood. Chances are you’ve bought stuff from them. Even more amazing is that the news media takes a passing glance (maybe) at these stories when actual terrorist are caught…like the University of Memphis Arab student who just happened to have a pilot’s uniform, airport layout diagrams, and books on how to fly planes and act like a pilot (plus all his Muslim jihadist propaganda) in his car.

Wake up, people….

Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right. Is this guy going to go justifying what Mao, Stalin, Hitler, etc. did because it was all “legal.” And what was the results from those raids? Where any of them convicted on anything related to terrorism or even the dubious “sponsor of terrorism?” Where are these Arabs who are bringing in nukes? What’s the delivery mechanism? Prove to me that this isn’t bigoted propaganda used to bring about a police state?

http://www.wreg.com/…

Traveling around Memphis, you probably don’t think much about terrorists, but law officers do.

It was front and center stage at a round up Saturday.

Operation Sudden Impact included police, deputies, FBI, drug agents, and even gang units all working together to see how crimes may be linked.

“People committing crimes down in Crittenden County might have some kind of warrant, and we might be looking for them in Shelby County. We in turn feed that information into state police, which can give us a national and international nexus if one exists,” says Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell.

He says terrorists usually have other links and because Memphis is a distribution center, it has to be especially on guard. That includes the waterways.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Memphis was a part of Saturday’s round-up, checking a boat on the river.

“We look at everything, the safety of the tow boat in general. We also check out the crew members, just to make sure there is nobody hiding out on the tow boat, felons, criminals etc.,” says Lt. Timothy Martin of the U.S. Coast Guard in Memphis.

They say sharing information and building relationships is a big step in fighting back against those intent on harm.

The Sheriff’s Department says 332 people were arrested, 142 of whom are were fugitives.

Hundreds of dollars were seized and drugs recovered, and 1,292 traffic violations were handed out.

They are determining if and when they plan another round-up.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/…

“Not all of this initiative is to arrest people,” said Deputy Chief Donna Turner of the Tipton County Sheriff’s Department.Many agencies put an emphasis on traffic stops. A little after 8 p.m. Saturday in Hickory Hill, Sgt. Chris Harris of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office street crimes unit stopped a white SUV that was booming with music. The driver was driving on a suspended license — he received a citation — and there was marijuana residue in the car, but “not enough to weigh out,” Harris said.

Still, every traffic stop holds the potential of netting much more than expected.

“Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma, was stopped because of a busted tail light,” said Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell.

Todd said he expected Bartlett police to hit more than 50 houses Saturday night and this morning in search of fugitives. Those they didn’t find and arrest, he expected they might apprehend within a few days.

“Some of these people will turn themselves in later once they know we know where they live,” Todd said. “Family members will put pressure on them.”

Lt. Timothy Martin, chief of response for the Coast Guard’s Sector Lower Mississippi River unit, said in recent weeks they have been working with local police and fire departments.

“We’re out there to show that just as the land side is covered by police and the sheriff,” Martin said, “we’re on the water, boarding boats, checking bridges, refineries and power plants.”

All crime-related information will be forwarded to the State of Tennessee’s Homeland Security Center in Nashville to see if there are possible ties to terrorism.

This is not something which hasn’t happened before but it is no less unnerving. A Google News search for “operation sudden impact” results in only 7 hits at the time of writing. Only one seems to be about it before it occurred. Notice how it’s all in the name of catching terrorists yet they go after generic criminals, setup traffic check points and issue tickets for minor traffic violations and search for drugs, board and search ships and businesses. Of course InfoWars.net has their take on it all calling it a preparation for martial law. I have a hard time disagreeing. These events are fairly board in scope and implication yet completely under reported. Given the laws passed in last few years allowing for more and more executive control over all aspects of law the belief that they may in fact utilize such power has only gathered strength.